Mark Arbib (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Government Service Delivery) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr President. We know that during the global recession apprenticeship commencements have been hit extremely hard. On average, commencements have dropped by around 27 per cent. In the construction trades they dropped by more than 30 per cent. The same thing happened in the 1990s. In 1990, around 35,000 people started an apprenticeship in a traditional trade; when the recession hit it dropped to 23,000, a fall of 35 per cent. It then took 13 years, over half of them under the Howard government, to get back to prerecession levels—13 years. This helped, obviously, create a skills crisis that held Australia back. We as a government have been determined not to let this happen again. We have used the Jobs Fund, and Apprentice Kickstart has worked. Not only have we hit the 21,000 apprentice target that we set but we have surged past this over the summer. We are going to go beyond our original commitment to triple the bonus for 21,000 apprentices by paying it for every teenage apprentice who was signed up over summer.

I thank Australian businesses for the support they have given the program. I thank the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. I thank the Australian Industry Group. I thank the HIA and the Master Builders Association for all the work they have done to ensure that these apprentices have been signed up and that young Australians will have a future in the trades. (Time expired)